Back to Basics

[Black Pearl]

I have decided to get back to basics so went looking through my bags for an exposure meter which I knew I had somewhere......








......none of your newfangled electrickery wot-nots for me - nope I'm going old school with an extinction meter

[Mike Buckley]

I had never seen one of these. Thanks for sharing!

[rpcrowe]

I used one a long-long time ago. I tended to do better with the Rule of Sunny 16 than with the extinction meter. But, that was just user error. I didn't do well at all in low light levels with this type of meter

[Rent]

Iv'e got one of those as well but mines got a red case

[Black Pearl]

I used one a long-long time ago. I tended to do better with the Rule of Sunny 16 than with the extinction meter. But, that was just user error. I didn't do well at all in low light levels with this type of meter

Sticking a licked finger in the air and testing the wind is probably just as accurate as this but its a nice piece of history to have and I think I did use it years back as a fun experiment.

[John 2]

Interesting. Is this a variation on the grease spot photometer. I briefly used one of those to measure exposure under the enlarger (I didn't buy it new you understand ).

[ionian]

I have also stepped back in time, changed my technological approach and defected for good measure. I picked this up on eBay earlier, mainly for the lens, but I've ordered some 400ASA b&w film to have a go at the authentic experience rather than just using adapted glass:



It's a zorki-4, a soviet made Leica wannabe with a L39 mount from 1972. It looks a hell of a lot of fun to boot - it's actually more modern than the camera I started with but I haven't shot film since I had my dad's help as a boy, so im expecting some interesting times. Chimping will be problematic...

[Rent]

Simon It's actually a copy of the Contax It has a longer range finder than the Leica and thus was more accurate also a lot of the parts were interchangeable with the Contax A lot of them were snatched up for Contax repair I believe the original Contax factory ( Zeiss Ikon ) ended up in Eastern Germany and the Russians took advantage of it The lens was superb for its age

[tao2]

Simon It's actually a copy of the Contax It has a longer range finder than the Leica and thus was more accurate also a lot of the parts were interchangeable with the Contax A lot of them were snatched up for Contax repair I believe the original Contax factory ( Zeiss Ikon ) ended up in Eastern Germany and the Russians took advantage of it The lens was superb for its age

Hi Roy,

That's not correct. The Kiev was the model, identical tae the Contax...





At the end of WWll, the Allies gave away all the patents in Germany, amazingly one of the major beneficiaries of this largesse was their defeated former enemy - Japan! The Russians seized the entire contents of the Zeiss factory as reparations. If ye ever see a very early Kiev...1947-49; on opening it ye'll probably find Contax parts (and Zeiss lenses) inside. The Kiev camera was no knock-off, poor quality Japanese copy, (as many Japanese cameras were then). The Zeiss technical director said that the Kiev was as good and as well made as the original Contax.

The FED 2 ...




The FED was derived from the Leica. It had a much longer rangefinder base, more faster and slower shutter speeds, a dioptre adjuster, removable back, flash syncro. All items which took Leica (and others) years tae catch up to. This led many folk tae begin tae believe the story the Russians told, that the Leica was a result of industrial espionage on the Germans part, in the period after the first WW.

The FED factory was very badly damaged during the war but the KMZ factory, which produced the Zorki was untouched . The Russians decided that they would concentrate selling the FED on the domestic market and promote the Zorki as an export model. The Zorki was also the basis for the first Russian SLR, the ZENIT, then ZENIT C (have a look at a Zorki 3). They simply added the mirror box and extended the front tae accomodate the required area for the reflex assembly.Meanwhile Leica was sticking bulky attachments on the Leica ll.

My ZENIT C, the Cyrillic C is S in Latin script - the C is for syncro

[ionian]

Really interesting stuff - thanks Boab. Your Zenith is a thing of beauty - must resist looking on ebay for one!

[Tringa]

Fascinating Robin, I have not seen one of those before.

It reminded me when I had my first camera, a Halina35X, all of the exposures were set by using the data sheet that came with films and I had a surprising number of successful shots; or is this just my failing memory?

Good to see shots of older cameras too.

Dave

[Black Pearl]

Fascinating Robin, I have not seen one of those before.

It reminded me when I had my first camera, a Halina35X, all of the exposures were set by using the data sheet that came with films and I had a surprising number of successful shots; or is this just my failing memory?

Good to see shots of older cameras too.

Dave

Negative film is fairly tolerant to exposure inaccuracies so a stop to two either way still produces a usable print as the process of getting an image from film to paper gives you scope to correct things.

[IzzieK]

My goodness me! You are showing your age in public...!!!

[Rent]

Boab I bow to your superior knowledge. I used to be friendly with a chap who repaired cameras and based my comments on what I remember ( or not ) from then, albeit a long time ago. They were very good cameras though
Roy